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T O P I C R E V I E W

The Sage

Posted - 31 Dec 2016 : 14:06:22 Well met

This being a continued collection of scrolls of any questions the Scribes and visitors of Candlekeep wish to put to a master who needs no introduction, namely - Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms.

Ed's works include MANY FR sourcebooks and numerous novels, such as Cormyr: A Novel, Spellfire, Silverfall, The Shadows of the Avatar Trilogy and The Elminster Series, to name but a few.

Present your questions herein and check back to see what news may also come forth from the quill of this author.

For previous entries of the many, many writings of lore by Ed, please see the 2016 entries in this collection of scrolls, the 2015 entries here, the 2014 entries here, the 2013 entries here, the 2012 entries here, the 2011 entries here, the 2010 entries here, the 2009 entries here the 2008 entries here, the 2007 entries here, the 2006 entries here, the 2005 entries here, and the 2004 entries here. 'ware, these run into over 80 pages, ye may be reading for some time. For a concise read of Ed's replies, visit the "So Saith Ed" page on the Candlekeep site.

Mod Edit: Given this scroll's shorter length, decided to keep using it for another year, and renamed it accordingly.

25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)

Eilserus

Posted - 21 May 2018 : 06:31:55 Hi Ed and THO,

Swords of Eveningstar makes reference to the Iron War Crown, also called the Arcrown. There's also a reference to the Iron War that might involve dwarves. Given the dwarven name Arcrown, the crown's mage killing abilities, and a possible Iron War, is there more that can be shared regarding any of this?

Thank you! :)

Marco Volo

Posted - 06 May 2018 : 09:35:41 Hi Ed and THO,

I found an old "D&D Lair Assault" of mine entitled "Temple of the Sky God". I had the surprise to see that Ed was credited as a designer on this.I haven't seen that before because he is credited inside the book but not on the cover (it's Greg Bilsland and Doug Hyatt). Did Ed acted like a consultant on this adventure ?

Thanks and have a nice day.

Marco Volo

Posted - 03 May 2018 : 07:01:27 Thanks THO, I was a little lost and you enmightened me.I will patiently wait but I'm on tenderhooks too :)

The Hooded One

Posted - 03 May 2018 : 02:01:59 And hi again. I bring you the first of Ed’s promised direct lore replies, this one to Fineva, re. this: “Hello Hooded Lady and greetings to Ed:After checking the forums awhile and obtaining great answers from Wooly, Slevas, etc, just one question remains.Tiamat as Ed says is building power, and Rise of Tiamat had a lot to do with treasure. The Dragon masks especially were required. Does this mean her power is locked in the masks (like other gods use chosen) and when she utterly destroys a mask and wearer she gains a piece of it? (Severin was yummy)”

Fineva, Ed says yes, destroying a mask and wearer does gain Tiamat some power, but it’s a little more complicated than that. The masks are foci for far more power than they hold, but by their nature are “holds” (limits) on Tiamat, so as each one is eliminated, Tiamat gains back more freedom to access more power. (Ed cautions me that even this is an oversimplification, and that your DM may of course change this, subtly or otherwise. ;} As Elminster saith, “Subtly? Hah! With humans, ’tis almost always ‘otherwise.’”)

So there you have it. More from Ed soon.Love,THO

The Hooded One

Posted - 03 May 2018 : 01:56:59 Hello again, all.Ed tells me the formatted (not by him, by one of the talented creatives of the Gamehole writing team) Border Kingdoms runs to JUST under 100 pages. Just so you know. ;}

Marco Volo,For now, A Darkness In North Ward is publicly unavailable, though there are copies “out there” that Ed has given away at conventions to lucky players. This is because it’s one of the adventures Ed still runs at conventions for fun (most recently, at CritCon in Toronto, four days ago). However, eventually, somehow, it will be made available, I suspect.As for the other adventures, here we go…At the DM’s Guild website, Ed has begun to do annual Mirt the Moneylender linked “tales” (short fiction with crunchy Realmslore included) and adventures (a 5e D&D adventure in the same locale that year’s story is set in).The first set of these was “All Things Through The Bright Flames,” a story wherein Mirt was sent to Ormpur by Laeral, the Open Lord of Waterdeep, as a sort of James Bond-style secret agent (the story runs a little less than 20,000 words, and at its end you get Mirt’s stats, a writeup of another NPC who features in the story, a new spell, and other Realmslore). The adventure linked to that is a dungeon crawl (so, under a little bit of the city of Ormpur) entitled “At The Sign Of The Drowned Dragon.” The Ed Greenwood Group held a contest, and the winner was Clinton Cronk, who penned an entirely different D&D adventure set in Ormpur entitled “Rattle The Sabre, Shake The Spear” that Ed describes as “very Shakespearean, urban intrigue roleplaying, and VERY thorough, so a novice DM can readily run it.”The second year of Mirt’s missions took him to Derlusk, the “bookish” northshore port of the Border Kingdoms, for another tale-with-crunchy-Realmslore entitled “The Book That Talked Back,” which is linked to a 5e D&D adventure entitled “The Haunted Tomes Of Derlusk.”Ed is writing the third Mirt linked pair of tale and adventure right now. He tells me he has plans to eventually do “Volo’s mini-guides” to the locales Mirt visits, as well.The first two pairs of Ed adventures have been up at the DM’s Guild, but have been taken down to revamp their layout, and will go back up in the fullness of time (this may take months), at which time they’ll be joined by Clinton’s adventure, so they can all be purchased at the Guild. Ed requests your patience; he is busier than ever, these days!Love,THO

1/ Will there be any way to buy the adventure A darkness in North Ward ? (I'm a fan of Waterdeep, have to ask ;)

2/ I was looking for few adventures written by Ed:At the Sign of the Drowned Dragon The Haunted Tomes of DerluskRattle the Sabre and Shake the SpearI'm looking for these adventures but can't find these anywhere. It would be to run them to my players. Onder Librum website is not availaible right now so i can't ask there if I can buy them in any way.

Posted - 02 May 2018 : 18:41:41 Wow, this is amazing news! Can't wait to see more Realms from Ed, it's been far too long...

The Hooded One

Posted - 02 May 2018 : 18:32:02 Hello again, all!Brimstone, I can tell you this much: Ed updated his Border Kingdoms write-ups to current Realms time (the 1490s DR) and completed them, A-Z, covering the entire BK in an overview that the GameholeCon adventure designers formatted into a handsome gazetteer that I hope will be available for sale at the DM's Guild eventually (proceeds to GameholeCon?)...Ed crammed it full of adventure hooks, subplots, and the like.

And I believe Alex Kammer, the master gamer who runs GameholeCon, collaborated with Ed on an uberplot to underpin the GameholeCon Adventurers League adventures at this year's con, and for several years into the future. Alex came up to Canada a month or so back to spend a few days at Ed's house cooking up things.

(Ed's also at work on other things in the Realms, including his own annual Mirt story-and-lore plus companion adventure. He held a TEGG contest, and the winner, Clinton Cronk, has designed an Ormpur adventure that should go up at the Guild eventually. I'm hoping Ed will follow through on his plans to write "Volo mini-guides" for all the locales Mirt visits, too...)

Another reply tomorrow, I hope (have ferried everything to Ed for lore replies)...

Love to all,THO

Brimstone

Posted - 01 May 2018 : 18:29:11 THO,

What can Ed share about his Border Kingdoms project for Adventure League? I saw that someone posted about it in one of the Forgotten Realms Facebook groups this morning.

Thanks!

dazzlerdal

Posted - 09 Apr 2018 : 20:16:47 Hi Ed/THO

Quick question that is probably a lot more difficult than I'd imagine as I'm not sure if you had conceived of Jhaamdath way back when.

Could you possibly impart the name of the ethnicity of the people of ancient Jhaamdath. Given that the name Jhaamdath comes from Jhaam as the first warlord of the Dath dynasty I'm not sure that the people could be called the Dath but I just thought I'd check.

Also have you given any consideration to how the name Chondath came about. Is it a corruption of Jhaamdath or was there a Chond the long forgotten scion of the Dath dynasty who helped save many people during the tsunami and its immediate aftermath (or maybe sometime later during the chaotic centuries after the tsunami.

Hope everything is alright with you and yours and any thoughts you have on the matter would be most welcome.

Given the Plinth's status as an all-faiths, "hands-off" arrangement, who is in charge of those transactions?

Irrevrykal

Posted - 06 Mar 2018 : 15:42:42 Hello, THO (and Ed, by extension). Is the inn of Horl's Horn (in Iliphanar, from 2012's Forging the Realms), or Selgaunt's Horl Street, connected to the doppelganger mule breeder Horl (also from Forging the Realms)? Or are they by chance connected to Horl Bryntwynter, the trader/Cormyrian spy in Halfhap (Swords of Dragonfire)?

Baldorar

Posted - 05 Mar 2018 : 09:09:50

quote:Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hello again, all.Baldorar, when Ed was starting out (before D&D) he wrote descriptions of each place, and the characters there. When beginning as a D&D DM, he write exhaustive descriptions (the precursor of what became "boxed text" to be read aloud at the gaming table), so he'd know how to portray (act) this or that character. But by 1979 or so, with the Realms filling his head, I suspect he improvised more than anything else...from thoughts jotted down AFTER each game session, for "how the world would probably react" (to what the PCs had done) for the next game session.

I've realised I haven't thanked you yet! :) So thanks! Even more than in the Realms themselves (which I love), I'm more interested in the creative force (or should I say 'forces'? ;-) )that propeled them specially in their early years. That's why I'm always curious in how Ed and you hguys did things back then.

Markustay

Posted - 27 Feb 2018 : 00:05:41 The 'Seven' is actually her 'mothers' symbol, and since she usurped (sort of) that power, she uses the Seven.

Which makes me think that the 'Seven' are something that has 'passed on', and now nine have passed on. Chosen?

According to Shinning South (3.xe), they were people from Lapal that fled from the yuan-ti and hid themselves behind the Walls.

Cool - I didn't think they were Dambrathi, but I couldn't remember why.

But the question still stands - What was there before the Lapalese fled to there? Anything or anyone?

George Krashos

Posted - 22 Feb 2018 : 01:46:34

quote:Originally posted by Markustay

I think Mirt may have been a member. Not sure why I think that, though.

Perhaps because somewhere its stated that all of them became Bluefire objects? I'm not even sure where I got that idea from, because its certainly not anything I would have come up with on my own.

EDIT:And because we're supposed to be asking questions: Ed, what/who do you picture being in Halruaa before the Netherse went there and founded that country?

The Nine and the Neverwinter Nine are two different groups.

-- George Krashos

Zeromaru X

Posted - 21 Feb 2018 : 19:31:54 As for this...

quote:Originally posted by Markustay

I think Mirt may have been a member. Not sure why I think that, though.

Perhaps because somewhere its stated that all of them became Bluefire objects? I'm not even sure where I got that idea from, because its certainly not anything I would have come up with on my own.

Nope, as of the current Realms, they are resting at peace in a tomb designed for them under Castle Never, the Vault of the Nine. It seems that Valindra wants or wanted (I dunno, as the 4e storyline got screwed with 5e) to transform them into death knights, but she was unable to do so by 1479 (the starting date of the Campaign Setting). I believe in the MMO she eventually gets to do it, as the concept art of the game have this cool pic about them, but I dunno. I cannot find the quest in Youtube (I do no play the game, as I'm not a fan of MMOs).

I'm intrigued about them because, according to Neverwinter Nights 2, Halueth Never had his own Neverwinter Nine back in the 1st century DR, and since Neverwinter Nights 2 seems to be in conflict with Ed's and George's lore, I want to know actual Realmslore about them.

I believe there also was a second (or third) generation of the Nine after Nasher's time, that served his descendants (if we go by what the NCS says), but I don't know if Ed was involved in the lore for Neverwinter in 4e.

Zeromaru X

Posted - 20 Feb 2018 : 00:10:22 According to Shinning South (3.xe), they were people from Lapal that fled from the yuan-ti and hid themselves behind the Walls.

Dalor Darden

Posted - 19 Feb 2018 : 23:00:53 The people living in Halruaa I thought were the same as the people native to Dambrath?

Markustay

Posted - 19 Feb 2018 : 20:42:46 I think Mirt may have been a member. Not sure why I think that, though.

Perhaps because somewhere its stated that all of them became Bluefire objects? I'm not even sure where I got that idea from, because its certainly not anything I would have come up with on my own.

EDIT:And because we're supposed to be asking questions: Ed, what/who do you picture being in Halruaa before the Netherse went there and founded that country?

Zeromaru X

Posted - 19 Feb 2018 : 08:25:56 Hi dear THO and Ed.

I like to know about the Neverwinter Nine. When they were founded? Were they all humans, or there were members of other races? Besides the ones from Neverwinter Nights 2, there was another notable member of the order?

Markustay

Posted - 11 Feb 2018 : 17:45:43

quote:Originally posted by Kentinal

quote:Originally posted by Markustay

I know he's not going to come around and answer, but just for shiggles...

We know (I think) that Toril has regular eclipses, right? I believe I recall reading about that, probably here at the 'Keep. Regular Solar eclipses.

But do Lunar eclipses occur?

Logic says yes. However depending on size and distance of bodies might not be total eclipse.

Except for one thing... and that's the reason why I ask this.

Obscure science and math aside, I suppose I should rephrase my question - IF all the math worked out perfectly for a Lunar eclipse, would we actually get one?

From Wiktipedia:

quote:A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly behind the Earth into its umbra (shadow).